


Overlooking Hyrule

by vaultbug



Category: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Video Game), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Found Family, a Certain Character survives because I Said So, a group of idiots + 1 egg, aoc spoilers, post calamity, whereas the champions are allowed to grow old in peace
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaultbug/pseuds/vaultbug
Summary: In the days to months to years following the great calamity, life thrives. Friendships grow. Hyrule had never been happier.Zelda thinks: oh, how we were the lucky ones.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 78





	Overlooking Hyrule

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kohga gets his revenge.

In the moments after the Calamity -- what a concept, Zelda thinks,  _ after  _ \-- they have to pluck Link up from where he collapsed in a shaky heap at the foot of Ganon’s remains. Revali, surprisingly, gets to him first. “I can’t believe you actually did it,” the Rito clucks and hoists him up, gentler than Zelda thought was possible. “Who would’ve thought?”

Link sways on his feet. Despite that, Zelda watches the corner of his lip twitch into a smile. Revali sees it too and the look of terribly faked disgust crosses his face. "Ugh, don't get sappy," the Rito says. "You were just doing your job."

“Oh, don’t be prude, Revali,” Urbosa snorts. “Link did well. And so did you,” she adds as Revali opens his beak. “We all deserve praise for standing up to something like that.” She inclines her head towards the rotten corpse of Ganon. 

“Uh, guys?” Impa says. “It’s moving.”

So it is. Ganon’s chest is heaving, gurgling noises emerging from the half-evaporated malice and when it rips itself up, she thinks it to be some unholy spawn of the beast. Vaguely humanoid, it thrashes and coughs up malice and blight alike until it manages to get clear of the mutilated corpse. Only then it staggers upright, trembling, scraping malice off of it with desperate hands, until Zelda watches the corruption slowly drain from its body onto the ground. It is then she recognizes who it is, but she doesn't believe it until she hears it speak. 

“How dare you,” Astor says, voice clogged. He spits to the side and sways. “How  _ dare  _ you.”

They all draw their weapons. Astor flinches. One of his braids is ripped. “You -- you killed him,” the seer stutters, and as they watch his voice gets deeper with rage. “You -- how could  _ you  _ have possibly killed --!”

“ _ You _ .”

Astor cuts off. They all turn. Kohga, five steps behind them, stands trembling, hands shaking and Zelda is reminded suddenly of how the Yiga looked when he pledged his clan to her, all nerves and steely anger. “You have a lotta  _ nerve  _ surviving all that,” the assassin master snaps past them to the injured seer. “How many times do I have to  _ kill  _ you?” 

"Kohga,” Astor breathes. His voice is shaky now and when he looks at them all, his wide eyes betray his fear. “You’re working with  _ him _ ? After everything he’s done?”

“Hmph. Pot callin’ the kettle black,” Daruk grunts.

There is a loud  _ snick _ . Zelda looks back. In Kohga’s grip the demon carver glints and as she watches, the Yiga takes a step forward. “Stand aside,” he commands. The immature laugh Zelda had grown used to in his voice was gone. “That one’s mine.”

Hesitation. No one moves. Kohga takes another step, clearly hostile and Mipha speaks up. “Kohga,” she says gently, but Zelda hears the warning in it anyways. “Breathe in.”

“Leave him be,” Urbosa says. Zelda whips her head to her in surprise -- she sees the rest of the group doing the same. Urbosa, defending Kohga? Yet when Zelda catches her gaze she is puzzled to find Urbosa’s eyes filled with a cool understanding. “He is not wrong to want this fool’s death.”

"Damn right I’m not,” Kohga spits. 

“Now let’s not -- be brash,” Astor splutters. He looks at them all, tries to find Zelda’s eyes but Urbosa slides in front of her, unwavering. “You wouldn’t kill me. It’s not your nature.”

It is lucky Revali is still holding Link upright. If he wasn’t, Zelda thinks an arrow would have found its way into Astor’s throat by then. “You’re awfully confident for someone surrounded,” the Rito snipes. His voice is stone-cold.

Astor pales at that. He sends another gaze among who Zelda thinks he interprets as the more timid of the bunch -- but Mipha says nothing and Sidon stares as if the seer is a mere smudge on the ground. It is then the man starts to back up. “I have no quarrel with you,” he stutters. “Ganon consumed me, robbed me of any power I have left. Please. I’ve done nothing wrong to you.”

“Let me  _ have  _ him,” Kohga rasps. Zelda watches his hands clench and unclench and somehow she knows that the Yiga is plotting routes, ways to break through their barrier of bodies between him and Astor. “He killed -- he  _ killed _ \--”

Zelda considers. Thinks about the ruins outside, the thousands killed on the fields. Rage sparks in her heart, but this time it is exhausted, this time her mind murmurs,  _ how long must this go on?  _

Silence. The Champions look amongst themselves. Then, quietly, they stand aside.

Astor bolts.

He does not make it two steps before Urbosa brings her hand up --  _ snap  _ \-- and a violent burst of lightning strikes him across the back and knocks him prone. Still he fights and sends a jolt of dark magic toward them, which Yunobo raises his shield and it flickers uselessly off. Teba draws his bow but Revali holds out his hand,  _ no,  _ and so they freeze, waiting, watching. 

And then Kohga is over Astor. Zelda sees the blade -- and then she closes her eyes, and all she can hear is the silence, so loud it thrums in her ears. “This is for  _ Sooga _ ,” Kohga swears, raw fury blazing in every word and she thinks she can hear how the carver glints.

Astor screams -- and then he doesn’t, and Zelda opens her eyes.

It is silent then, filled with nothing but Kohga’s ragged breathing. Urbosa is still shielding her so she cannot see the full extent of what happened but the faces around her tell her enough, from Teba’s quiet grimace to Mipha’s saddened curl of her lips. Yet no one says anything. Perhaps, she thinks, perhaps they would do the same if Kohga had not struck. Personally she is a little unsettled by how his death relieves another weight on her shoulders. Another problem taken care of now instead of later, something in her says. 

“You should burn the corpses,” Daruk says suddenly. At everyone’s incredulous staring, he scratches his head but continues undeterred. “It’s just -- I know it seems silly, but if they’re ash they can’t, y’know. Come back.”

“Well, you’re not wrong about that,” Revali says. He passes Link off to Impa and draws his bow. Before Zelda can object (what if Malice was explosive?), he sends off two fire arrows into each corpse. They catch aflame right away and to her relief, there is no combustion. “There. No more boogeymen.”

“Yay,” Riju says half-heartedly.

It is tiredness she feels in the air now. As the corpses fume and begin to smoke she watches the facade of bravado her group carries begin to fleck off and fall to the ground. Kohga has rejoined them now and although he seems lighter, he hasn’t sheathed his weapon as if expecting Astor to spring back up and send more blights and shadows at them. Zelda ignores the too-familiar smear on its steel. 

Finally she speaks. “We should see the extent of the damage,” she says to them all, watching them straighten despite the fatigue. “Hyrule Field is still burning. The castle is in immeasurable disrepair. Our priority should be the wounded and fallen.”

“Including this idiot,” Revali says and gestures to Link. The knight is nodding off on Impa’s shoulder and her advisor looks only mildly disturbed by it. 

“Ah, just give him some food and he’ll be good to go,” Daruk jokes.

It is that which breaks the tension. Zelda finds herself smiling -- bittersweet, but a smile nevertheless. “You’re right,” she agrees. “I think some food is what he needs.”

Terrako’s screw pulses twice in her hand, as if happy too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place immediately after AOC, so expect tons of spoilers for that timeline. Also!!! Anyone else love the Yiga in this game or was it just me??? I'm in love with Kohga, I don't know if I can replay BOTW and kill him in that game.


End file.
